Page 17 of The Pleasure Contract

My focus comes back to the interior of the cruiser and not spiraling into the many patriarchal audacities that are just assumed to be facts merely because enough men said them out loud.

Az has his personal comms on his wrist instead of a floating ball like DJ. He’s tapped a button and is now projecting something in front of us. It’s a selection of buttons, and for a split second, I see the Xaviann writing on each of them before the translator at my temple kicks in and turns it all into English. In some cases, even the English doesn’t really give away what each button is for, but I’ve never been particularly tech-savvy, so that’s nothing new. Az selects a few buttons from the projection in mid-air, the screen changing in front of us to reveal a list divided into two. On one side, there are so many names, it’s almost overwhelming; on the other, there’s only one.

Me.

I squint at what I’m seeing. Each of the Xaviann names has a line scoring through it, like someone had crossed it out. “Do you do that after you’ve… used it?”

Az chuckles. “You think I’ve used all of these?” he asks, swiping his finger up on that column, making the list scroll, and scroll and scroll. Oh God! There are so many! “I’d have to give up drakball and all princely duties to even have enough time to use all of these, Lois,” he laughs. “And maybe start drinking special energy brews, too.”

“Hydration is important,” I jokingly mutter at the sheer number of names on this list of people who want Az to use their likeness in his special little fuck-simulator. “And those are all crossed off because-”

“The system does that to names I’ve deactivated.”

Ok, so he wasn’t lying.

“But… Why is my name on that side? I haven’t given you my Permission.”

Az sits back and twists to face me. “That column is a list of all the people I’ve given my Permission to.”

Oh. Only me.

I bite my lip. “Like… just this week, or…?”

Az’s eyes dip to my mouth, and he rumbles, “Ever, little female. You are the first and only person who I’ve even wanted to give my Permission to.”

My pulse jumps, and I know my cheeks are berry-red right now. I try not to stare right back at his mouth – a mouth showing the barest hint of fang – when I ask, “You promise the ladies you’re introducing me to tonight aren’t on that long, long list of yours, Az?”

He grins and answers, “I promise,” before shutting off his extensive list of deactivated Permissions and starting up the cruiser.

* * *

When we pull up to our destination, I-

I have no idea where we are or what kind of place this is.

The building is so huge, I can’t see where it ends or even how tall it is. It seems to me like it spans on for all eternity in all directions but down – and maybe it does that, too, and I just can’t see it.

“What is this place?”

Az grins as he helps me down from the cruiser. “You’ll see,” he says with a wink, before pressing a sequence of buttons on the side of the city cruiser. We both watch as the driverless flying vehicle whisks itself away. Higher up on the outside wall of the colossal building, a large hatch opens as the ship approaches. Az’s cruiser tucks itself inside, landing in what I’m assuming is a parking bay. “Come,” Az says, bringing my attention back to him. He walks over to the wall and shows his wrist comm to a scanner. Previously invisible doors slide open, their seam having been completely undetectable to my unknowing eye before.

Following him inside, I find myself in a long, tunnel-like stone hall, and even though I know we’re above street level right now, it feels like we’re underground. I can’t see how long the tunnel goes because floating balls of light that flank us every few feet or so seem to be motion-detection lights – lighting around ten or twenty feet in front of us as we walk.

“You know,” I start, struggling to keep up with Az’s long, Xaviann gait. “Earth-Lois used to watch a lot of horror movies and true crime documentaries, and she’s screaming at me to run like hell right about now.”

Az slows his pace and looks at me quizzically.

“Those ‘ladies’ you wanted to introduce me to aren’t the bodies of your victims, right?” I joke.

The joke doesn’t land. Az pulls up short and turns to face me. “Are you saying that I have brought you here to harm you?”

“I… uh… never mind.”

He narrows his eyes at me before taking a step forward.

I take a step back.

Az frowns at that, but keeps on moving. And I keep moving with him – right up until I feel the cool hardness of the stone wall at my back. I suck in a breath at the sudden sensation – the nearness of him, the sheer size of him, and at the notion that I may have pissed him off with my joke.